Bulls point guard Kirk Hinrich returned to the lineup in Monday night's loss to the Grizzlies and while the result and his personal stat line—four points on 2-for-8 shooting and five assists in 31 minutes before fouling out—weren't what he hoped for, the veteran claimed he's fine moving forward.

"It [his bruised left knee] was good enough to play," Hinrich, who missed the Bulls' two previous contests, said afterwards. "I would have liked it to feel a little better, but that's just an excuse. We didn't play very well tonight, myself included."

When asked if he would play in Tuesday night's home game against Boston, Hinrich responded, "I plan on it."

As far as his offensive struggles on the evening, Hinrich acknowledged that he didn't have a great night scoring the ball, but believes he can persevere through it.

"Just be aggressive, look for my shot," he explained. "Tonight, I just didn't get some to go, but it's going to happen."

Teammate Joakim Noah concurred: "'Kirky' is fine. He's got to get his rhythm back, but he's doing a great job for us defensively and I think just taking his shots, not thinking about it [will help]," he said. "Kirk's a worker and he'll be fine."